ABSTRACT
Radionuclide therapy involves radiopharmaceuticals mostly consisting of a particle-emitting radionuclide combined to a vehicle that localizes it to disease sites. The main objective of radionuclide therapy is to achieve high therapeutic efficacy by maximizing damage to the disease site (i.e. cancer cells) while minimizing damage to surrounding healthy tissue. In contrast, radiation therapy uses an external ion beam source to provide localized therapy while radionuclide therapy provides systemic treatment through the direct administration of the radiotherapeutic to the patient. Radionuclide therapy is currently being employed to treat a variety of cancers including thyroid cancer, prostate cancer, and neuroendocrine tumors as well as bone and liver metastases while advancements in are still underway. This review provides an overview of the radiotherapeutics being utilized in the clinic for several malignancies as well as highlighting recent preclinical developments.
